On The Vine: Keep that same energy
I’m writing this for you as much as I am myself.
May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Events of the past few years especially have shone a light and brought allied attention to Asian American communities that perhaps folks were unaware was long overdue — myself included.
Last year was a fervor of recognition and support and activism on behalf of and in step with Asian American communities. Maybe it’s just me — maybe I’m simply not in touch, or maybe I’m just telling on myself — but this year feels different.
We’ve turned the spotlight on to LGBTQ rights in schools and fighting for abortion, and for good reason, but anti-Asian hate didn’t stop. Just today, three Korean women were shot after a gunman opened fire at a Dallas hair salon.
Perhaps we can’t keep the same level of energy for everything, all at once, all the time. Perhaps that’s too much to ask?
The least we can do is support our communities.
Kansas City Parks & Recreations Department, in partnership with Cafe Cà Phê, will hold a citywide Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebration May 21 in Columbus Park that will be chock full of music, performances, AAPI small business booths and AAPI food trucks.
In the meantime, check out these lists (Part 1 and Part 2) of Vietnamese-owned businesses in Kansas City, as curated by the folks at Cafe Cà Phê.
Beyond the block
The story behind Asian Pacific American Heritage, and why it’s celebrated in May
Rina Torchinsky at NPR writes:
May marks Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories of Americans hailing from across the Asian continent and from the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
This year’s theme, selected by the Federal Asian Pacific American Council, is “Advancing Leaders Through Collaboration,” which builds on a leadership advancement theme series that began last year.
Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action and co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate says the month is a time to speak out, share stories and debunk myths about Asian communities, she said. But it’s not the only time to celebrate Asian culture or diversity.
“Our history is also filled with incredible stories of resilience, of persistence, of determination, to fight for our basic rights,” Choi told NPR. “This is a celebration of our history, of our culture ... and all the different ways in which our community has really demonstrated that we’re not only here to stay, we are a part of this fabric — a part of this country.”
More where that came from...
A Proclamation on Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Heritage Month, 2022
Celebrate AAPI Heritage Month With These Delicious Asian Snacks
Karine Jean-Pierre is named White House Press Secretary
The New York Times’ Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Michael D. Shear report:
President Biden on Thursday selected Karine Jean-Pierre, the principal deputy press secretary, to replace Jen Psaki as the top White House spokeswoman, making her the first Black woman to hold one of the most high-profile jobs in American politics.
Ms. Jean-Pierre, who worked on Mr. Biden’s campaign and has had a long career in Democratic communications, will become the president’s second White House press secretary. In her new role, she will have the high-pressure job of delivering daily briefings from the lectern in the briefing room.
In a statement, Mr. Biden said Ms. Jean-Pierre “not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris administration on behalf of the American people.”
Around the block
‘Fight to the end’: Black-owned housing co-op made history in KC. Now it faces foreclosure
Parade Park, a 510-unit housing co-op built in the early 1960s, is one of the oldest Black-owned housing cooperatives in the country, and was for decades a model of sustainable multifamily housing by its residents, Kansas City’s elected officials and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But after years of neglect, the housing complex has fallen into disarray — charred, gutted and in many cases barren. The future of Parade Park is very much uncertain.
The Star’s Bill Lukitsch and Anna Spoerre report:
It started with a small drip.
Before long the water heater in Darrin Sherman’s apartment had been leaking for two months as he repeatedly called the front office at Parade Park Homes in search of help. But despite countless pleas, he says, it was never fixed.
Over time the neglect created a basketball-sized hole in his kitchen roof, sopping wet carpets throughout the first floor and unstable footing in his upstairs bathroom. Now, says Sherman, who is blind, he has been forced to move out.
Sherman is one of many who have left Parade Park, a 510-unit housing co-op in Kansas City, as residences there have fallen into severe disrepair. Roughly half of the townhomes sit empty and some have become uninhabitable.
“Even in its decline this was still my home,” the 52-year-old said. “I was comfortable here. It was quiet here. I come home and live. I felt safe here, I felt secure here.”
“And that has been taken away from me totally,” said Sherman, who described his townhouse as a “mausoleum.”...
Residents express different views on how it came to this. Some suspect property managers deliberately neglected the complex as part of a plan to let the land fall into the hands of greedy real estate developers. Others think the co-op board, while meaning well, made crucial mistakes that doomed Parade Park.
However it happened, the danger is clear. After a February inspection by HUD, the co-op now faces the possibility of default and foreclosure. Parade Park has until July 7 to come up with a plan to address the “serious deficiencies” revealed by the inspection, which scored 14 out of 100 points and put the company in violation of its regulatory agreement.
Not everyone has given up. Recently, several new board members were elected to oversee Parade Park and have expressed a determination to find a way through the crisis.
More from The Star...
Kansas City Jazz Orchestra announces 2022-23 season of past, present and future music
This garden has provided produce to Northeast KC for 20 years. Now it’s getting a makeover
Two Black KCPD female officers say they endured sexual, racial discrimination: lawsuits
No, Missouri’s abortion ‘trigger’ law doesn’t ban Plan B, birth control or IVF, experts say
Kansas senator demands TV rating update so parents can shield kids from LGBTQ characters
Daniel Desrochers writes for The Star:
Kansas U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall waded into the culture wars on Wednesday and demanded changes to television ratings so parents could shield their children from LGBTQ representation in shows.
Marshall was the lead author on a letter to the TV Parental Guidelines Advisory Board asking them to update its ratings to inform parents whether a show contains content related to sexual orientation or gender identity.
“To the detriment of children, gender dysphoria has become sensationalized in the popular media and television with radical activists and entertainment companies,” the letter says. “This radical and sexual sensation not only harms children, but also destabilizes and damages parental rights.”
In a follow-up email, Marshall’s office emphasized that he is especially concerned about gender dysphoria and, “the promotion of cosmetic treatments.”
The letter suggests that adults are harming and exploiting young audiences by showing LGBTQ characters, a trope that has been employed in opposition to the LGBTQ community since the 1970s, when Florida singer Anita Bryant led a campaign called “Save our Children” in an attempt to repeal local LGBTQ nondiscrimination laws.
Take care
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This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 3:19 PM.
